On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Wag
One of the things that I really enjoy is using my iPhone to shoot panoramic photos. I think that the photos give a good sense of the grandeur of the mountains.
Putting this particular post together has been a learning experience for me and for WaterGirl. The files on these photos are massive, and they caused no end of difficulty in downloading. I lost count of how many times I broke WP trying to download the photos. It turns out that 11.4MB files do not play well with WP. So here hare the photos in a much smaller format. Enjoy!
A pano taken just after dawn at Twin Lakes while on our way to climb Sunlight and Windom. The peaks in the sun on the right side of the photo are Eolus and North Eolus, with Sunlight and Windom on the right hand skyline. In between are a bunch of 13,000 ft tall peaks.
A pano from the summit of Sunlight, with Windom on the far left, and Eolus poking into the tiny cloud just to the right of center.
The next day we climbed Eolus and North Eolus. It is interesting to see the mountains from such different perspectives. The large peaks towards the left side are Turret Peak and Pigeon Peak, a pair of “Centennial” peaks in Colorado, meaning that they are amongst the 100 highest peaks in Colorado. There are 58 14ers, and an additional 42 13ers that make up the Centennials.
One last pano. I love the tiny lake (correct geologic term for the type of lake is a tarn) on the right, reflecting the intense blue of the sky.
Chris T.
The sad thing is, 11.4 MB is tiny these days. Now, if your photos were 500 MB each, times 10 photos, that might be noticeable… ?
(for scale, a DVD holds about 4.7 GB)
Mike E
40 years ago I spent a summer in the north San Juans where I got to climb one 14k’ (Wetterhorn) and jealousy look at another (Uncompahgre) but the rooftop view still sticks in my mind. I should upload my vintage snaps sometime… thanks for the vistas!
Betty
Beautiful vistas. I can’t imagine what it takes to reach these peaks. It appears something is reversed in the pictures because I see the very blue tarn on the right.
Wag
@Betty: My dyslexia. Meant to type right
Wag
WaterGirl
@Wag: I can change left to right if I know which sentence for which photo.
Wag
@WaterGirl: last photo, only sentence. And while you’re at it, second photo, Windom is on the far left, not far right.
mvr
Great photos! I especially like the first.
Doug
@WaterGirl:
While you’re at it, I think Wag may mean “grandeur” rather than “grander” in the very first paragraph.
BigJimSlade
Great panos – wonderful scenery :-)
Here are the links to the slightly larger versions of the images:
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_7391.jpeg
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_7399.jpeg
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_7478.jpeg
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_7503.jpeg
For those wondering how I got those, I took the dimensions off the original img path so this:
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_7391-768×160.jpeg
becomes this:
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_7391.jpeg
Notice that “-768×160” has been removed – that’s it.
J R in WV
Amazing and wonderful photos, all of ’em!
I always reduce the size of photos I submit to Watergurl — for one thing our bandwidth sucks, for another I don’t expect we are the only folks with limited connection speeds. Sometimes we get to watch the Maddow show after dinner, sometimes we have to listen to the audio only feed, sometimes even the audio feed is lame. Sat dish by Viasat. They suck. And expensive, also too!!
Thanks for the great mountain photos! So much naked geology!! Here in the east all the geology is buried under forests and greenery…
JanieM
The pics I submit are 2000 pixels on the longest side — the guideline Steve from Mendocino gave me when we started corresponding. Some of my earlier pics had longer dimensions, but they were small files (maybe 1.5 mb) from my old camera. I’ve never had an upload fail as long as I kept to the 2000-pixel max.
I’d be curious about whether other regulars have thoughts on this — having a guideline with the upload link might save people some time in terms of failed uploads. (I had one the other night because I forgot to resize the pictures!)
WaterGirl
@Wag: @Doug: All changes made!
WaterGirl
@JanieM: This “regular” can tell you all that what Steve from Mendocino said is exactly what we want.
2000-pixels for the longest side is (basically) the minimum and the maximum (!) size we want for any photos submitted for the site :-)
The BJ calendar is completely different because that doesn’t go up on the site. There we want the highest resolution possible.
JanieM
@WaterGirl: Thanks!
If 2000 is both a min and a max, then I think that translates to: longest side = 2000 pixels, other side is <= 2000 pixels.
Yes?
WaterGirl
@JanieM: Yep. For the ideal size for the website, 2000 is the sweet spot. On all counts.
Yutsano
@Mike E:
For the briefest of moments I thought you meant the San Juan Islands in northwest Washington. But then the peak names didn’t add up. A very long time ago my great aunt (one half of a long standing lesbian couple) sent me to a camp up there. I don’t remember much about the camp experience but I do remember hiking up the tallest point on Orcas Island. And all the nature, especially the chipmunks.
Wag
@Mike E: Wetterhorn is an amazing climb. One of my favorites
@Yutsano: Mt Constitution!